One of the key areas of the Tropical Biology Association’s (TBA) work is building expertise in biodiversity conservation and research. In April 2009, the TBA utilised this expertise and held a capacity building workshop at the Sabah Forestry Department headquarters in Sandakan, Sabah, contributing to the BAT Biodiversity Partnership’s Borneo programme.

Entitled ‘Understanding Ecosystem Services’, and held from 27th – 30th April, under the umbrella of the British American Tobacco Biodiversity Partnership’s Borneo Programme, the 4 day workshop brought together 16 participants from 7 organisations. These included representatives from government, non-governmental and academic institutions from Sabah, peninsula Malaysia and Indonesia, whose work is relevant to the study and management of ecosystem services.

	Workshop facilitators and delegates at the Sabah Forestry HQ

Ecosystems provide services or outcomes that directly and indirectly affect hman wellbeing. These ecosystem services include food, fibre and fuel provision and the cultural services that benefit people through recreation and appreciation of nature. They also include services that are less easy to measure such as the regulation of the climate, purification of air and water and flood protection. Today, many ecosystems and the services they provide are under increasing pressure.

The most comprehensive assessment of ecosystem services to date — the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, which involved over 1,300 scientists from 95 countries — found that over 60% of the environmental services studied are being degraded faster than they can recover.

At present, many of these ecosystem services are either undervalued or have no financial value at all; most services are not traded in markets and methods are not available to evaluate them financially.

The workshop aimed to build an understanding of ecosystem services with a focus on forests and freshwater systems.   It examined current ecological thinking and its application to natural resource management at a local and global scale.  The workshop placed ecosystem services in the context of international conventions and targets and examined case studies of how ecosystem services are valued. It aimed to get participants to recognise new methods for putting a financial value to the services that the environment provides.

Teaching was participative, using a combination of talks, discussions, practical exercises and field visits.  It was rounded off with a discussion on the opportunities for ecosystem services projects in Sabah.

The first day included a talk by the director of the Sabah Forestry Department on ‘Forest Governance in Sabah’ and introduced the history of forestry in the region; issues of land ownership; and some of the constraints affecting conservation of forest ecosystems.  The broad subject of ecosystem services was introduced and placed in the context of international agreements and the realities of the current state of our ecosystems and related targets.  Specific attention was given to the connections between ecosystems and the processes that underpin human wellbeing.   A local example of the research and activities within the Yayasan Sabah Forest Management Area was presented to illustrate examples of conservation and restoration of forest ecosystems. 

	Pollination – an important ecosystem service

The second day went into more detail on how to assess ecosystem services and used freshwater case studies to illustrate the theme of ‘connectedness’ between forests, wetlands, rivers, lakes, estuaries, coasts and oceans.  A practical exercise assessed the effects on ecosystem services following the development of a hydroelectric project in a wetland region.   The participants then looked at the specific case of pollination as an ecosystem service, using a talk and group exercise to examine how human populations benefit from the valuable ‘free’ service of pollination. 

The third day was spent in the field with a visit to Sepilok forest reserve, followed by a river trip to a mangrove forest.   Practical exercises looked at the ecological processes occurring in the forest, relating them to issues covered by talks and discussions during the first 2 days.  Participants also examined ways in which environmental education can contribute to public understanding of the role and importance of ecosystem services. The second half of the field excursion looked at the ways in which local people use natural resources in a mangrove forest. Discussions were held with members of communities involved in charcoal production from mangrove trees, fish farming and traditional fishing.

Sepilok Forest Reserve

On the final day, participants presented the results of the hydroelectric development case study.  This was followed by a talk and exercise on ‘valuing ecosystem services’.  The last session investigated the opportunities that exist for projects on ecosystem services in Sabah, at the end of which, participants produced project proposals that used the understanding of the concepts raised during the workshop in the context of addressing a local issue. 

The workshop received excellent feedback from the participants and stimulated a great deal of discussion and debate. Participants gained an understanding of ecosystem services and learned methods for putting a financial value to the services that the environment provides humans.

The workshop was funded by the British American Tobacco Biodiversity Partnership.

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